This dance of time
by Craploadsofawesomeness
Summary: Laura is really, really, getting tired of this shit. Because defeating an age-old witch wasn't good enough, she now finds herself transported to the past along with her group of unlikely allies, and her now-girlfriend Carmilla, in an adventure to battle new evils, all while trying to figure out how to blend in. The sequel to the Forever saga.
1. Chapter 1

Carmilla

"So you see, it's all Danny's fault..."

"Carmilla!" Laura smacks her on the arm, and she jumps out of her girlfriend's reach, wincing.

Danny sighs again.

Okay, so fine, if Carmilla is being completely honest, she does realize that it's not totally Danny's fault they're all stuck here. It may have also been a little bit of...

"Fratboy was the one who..."

Carmilla!" Laura hits her arm again, and this time she gives up.

"Fine," she admits, rubbing the buised part "Fine. It was me too."

She thinks of this morning, when Laura convinced all of them to go looking into the debris for "interesting things we may find, Carm!", and how it led to all of them, Lafontaine, Perry, Kirsch, Mel, Danny, and of course, Carmilla to accompany her to the ruins under the Lustig. Of the weird glowing locket that Kirsch saw and immediately picked up, and how, when she and Lurch saw him, tried to knock it out of his hands. Of that stupid glowing locket, which had cracked on impact, and sent up a cloud of green smoke, which had, of course, immediately sent them to God knows where.

"Well, we're not in Silas anymore," Laf says doubtfully, looking at her pocket compass, the needle of which is currently going haywire in her hands "I mean, it looks like the same place. It's underground, in some network of caves, but it's more like the below of Silas before it was destroyed last week. I just have no idea where, and how and why."

"Well, thank heavens I, at least, brought Gertrude along. I mean, whatever comes at us this time, I will shoot it in the eye before it does some actual damage." Mel declares, pulling her weapon out, and there are five collective "Jeez"es, Carmilla included. Danny is the only one who doesn't bat an eyelid, hefting her axe. She opens her mouth to say something when Carmilla suddenly cuts in.

"Look, can we get out of here, at least? It's underground, and I haven't had food in hours, and it's getting dark in here."

She hates the sudden looks of understanding and pity that every one's faces sport right after she says it. She knows why they look this way, and know it's well-intentioned, but a part of her hates them all for thinking of her as weak. She thinks of saying something scathing, when there's a sudden pressureon her hand, and she realizes Laura has grabbed hers.

Hey, baby, she imagines Laura saying, going by the look on the face right now, a mixture of love and understanding , You know they all love you. They don't mean to make you feel weak. Just worried about you.

Yeah, I know, she replies in her head, and would usually feel stupid saying this, but Laura understands.

Ah, Laura.

Carmilla still doesn't understand how she ever got this lucky. To be holding hands with the long lost love of her life, the most amazing girl in the entire world, Laura Hollis. It seems like yesterday, when she was hopelessly pining after her, and trying to solve a million mysteries at once. And now, here they both are...

"Could you stop staring into each other's eyes for, like, one second, and try to figure out what's going on here?" Mel snarks, and the spell is broken.

Ah, well, Carmilla thinks. You can't have everything, I guess. If you get the girl of your dreams, I suppose you also have to contend with her annoying idiotic friends tagging along on every adventure.

************

Laura

She honestly has no idea how they manage to land themselves in places, or situations like this all the freaking time. Her luck seems to be worst than Harry freaking Potter.

"At least Harry Potter had a dream team," Carmilla drawls from her rather uncomfortable perch on a huge slab of rock.

"Well," she shoots her a look "So do we! I mean, look! There are three warriors here," she points at Danny, Mel, and Kirsch "Well, you could also include me, since I know Krav Maga..."

All of them shake their head no, and she scowls for a second.

"Fine, three warriors. And we've got a super smart scientist, and a super mom-researcher in Laf and Perry."

Lafontaine smiles, and she hi-fives them.

"And, then, we've got me, a...person, and Carmilla, who..." she trails off, because what talent does her girlfriend actually have apart from snarking, and looking gorgeous while doing it? "Thanks so much, baby," her girlfriend deadpans, but Laura can detect a tone of hurt in her voice, and oh, crap, she's pissed off.

Laf cuts in "She means we've got the most badass journalist ever and the girl who..."

"Defeated an evil witch with a sword in her hand," Laura completes their statement, looking right at Carmilla "She's a hero."

Carmilla looks at her uncertainly, and then her face breaks into a tentative smile.

"Well", she says, jumping off her rock perch, and grabbing Laura's hand "Let's get out of this place, and find out what the hell's going on."

It takes them about half an hour, one smashed-against-the-wall flashlight, two fights, one between Mel and Kirsch, and the other invlving Danny and Carmilla, one grumbled apology from Danny, and about a hundred lost turns in the underground tunnels, before they finally manage to find a series of stones that could pass for a staircase leading up towards light.

Amid a bunch of "Oh God, my eyes" from half the people in the group, Laura tugs Carmilla down to where she is currently lying, on the grassy lawn. Her girlfriend grumbles a bit, but aquieses, stretching out next to her.

"Hey," Laura whispers, brushing a lock of hair out of her eyes.

"Cupcake," Carmilla whispers back, amusement in her voice.

"Granted, I have no idea where we are," she starts "And that we might possibly be in a lot of mortal peril, and that this might be a surprise death trip, and there might be a lot of unpleasant things waiting for us out here..."

"Way to make me feel better, sweetheart," the other girl deadpans.

"Let me finish," she chastises, and Carmilla lets her face falls into a mock-serious expression "Given all of those stupid things, I am glad that you're here with me. And that I, very much so..."

"Uh huh," her girlfriend says, anticipation coloring her voice.

"Very very much..."

"Yes?"

And because, of course, even this place won't let Laura share a romantic moment with her girl, that is the exact moment Laf decides to scream a greeting at a shrubbery.

"Hello?"

Both she and Carmilla raise their heads to watch a woman walk out of the bushes, a woman wearing a gown, the kind Laura likes to call old-timey costumes, the one with frills, and lace, and silk, and judging by the woman's stifled way of walking, a corset too.

"Um," Laf calls out to her "Could you possibly tell us where we are, kind lady?"

The woman casts one suspicious glance over their ragged selves, and hurries away without giving an answer.

"Well, that was weird," Kirsch notes "You think she was wearing her Halloween costume or something?"

"Guys, are your watches working?" Laf asks them all, urgently, rifling in her own backpack for something.

Danny, Perry, Mel, and Kirsch all check their wrists "Nope."

"Oh," Laf says "Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh."

"What? What is it?" Perry asks them.

"Well, aside from the very minute possibilty that we just met a cosplayer, and considering the facts that all of our watches have stopped working, and the fact that J.P, who I've been carrying

around with me has turned into a candle, I think it might be a very good assumption that we have, somehow, travelled into the past."

The freaking past. Of course. Because Harry Potter wasn't enough, now they've all turned into bloody Time Lords. Life, and Silas, really don't want to give her a goddamn break. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Laura**

It's 1830, and London is strange.

The buildings are all pushed together, and there is no space. Laura feels suffocated immediately. There are fumes everywhere, and people keep walking about. Everyone seems to be in a hurry. They all walk past, talking loudly about the railways, or business, only stopping to give them all weird looks, which, she totally gets, because they're all wearing weird clothes.

"These clothes aren't weird," Kirsch says, offended.

"Kirsch, you're wearing cargo shorts. In 1830 London."

"Ah ha," Danny chuckles at him, but falls quiet when Laura turns to her.

"You aren't doing much better. You and Mel are both wearing leather jackets, and ripped jeans. Laf is wearing an almost suit, and their hair was going to draw attention anyway. Carmilla is wearing all black. All black, and all leather, and all very, very tight..." here Laura gets distracted for a while looking at how tight Carmilla's clothes exactly are. It doesn't help matters when her girlfriend winks at her, and she only starts speaking again, when Laf clears their throat "And I'm, also, wearing, you know, clothes."

"Very articulate, Laura," Mel smirks at her.

"Oh, you know what I mean. The only one dressed appropriately here is Perry, and that's because she, at least, is wearing a skirt. And decent top."

"Thank you, Laura," Perry smiles a dazzling smile at her, then turns to Laf "And you keep making fun of this."

"What? Come on, Per, it's all in fun. Plus, you know I think you look amazingly beautiful in whatever you wear."

Perry turns a bright shade of red that matches Laf's hair, and Laura has to smile at the both of them. They just look so...

"Nauseating, aren't they?" Carmilla mutters, and she elbows her in the stomach.

"Oh, I wouldn't say they are the nauseating ones," Danny loudly proclaims from somewhere "I mean, at least they weren't asking Laura to call them baby, like, five times, out in the astronomy tower.

And if people passing by could somehow have ignored their clothes, they certainly couldn't ignore the sight of a furious, tiny, covered in all black girl trying to attack a tall, amused girl who was laughing her heart out in the middle of the street.

But then again, it was 1830. And people were, after all, strange.

She still has no idea how they keep landing themselves in these situations. Fighting in the middle of the street was one thing, but now they're all tied up, strapped to chairs, and blindfolded in the dark.

"How do you know it's dark if you're blindfolded?"

"Because, Kirsch," she starts, and then pauses "Wait, I actually don't know if we're in the dark. Rewind. Anyways, gentle viewers, we've been kidnapped, and wrestled into a carriage, and led downstairs some creepy house, presumably to its basement, or whatever the 1830 equivalent of the word is, and now have no idea where we are. The only things we know are that we have somehow ended up in London, in 1830, but why that is, is anyone's guess. When we decided to split up to cover more ground, and do more recon, we were all unceremoniously attacked and stuffed into the back of random horse drawn carriages."

"Gentle viewers? How are you recording?" Carmilla asks, from somewhere behind her.

"Laf found a voice recorder in their bag, and I stuffed it down my shirt. Amazing, isn't it?"

"Simply fascinating," Carmilla mutters, sarcasm clear in every syllable, and she shoots a quick " _Don't be an ass_ " at her, mentally.

" _Babe, it's sort of my job,"_ Carmilla retorts, in her head.

" _Is this really happening? This hearing each other in our heads?"_

" _I guess, what with us being long lost lovers and all. I wouldn't say it doesn't have its benefits, though. I mean, I can, say, things, that wouldn't be fit for public company. Like how absolutely sexy..."_

"Ohkay," Laura breaks the connection, blushing "Wait, is someone coming?"

"Can't hear anything," Mel tells her, and Laura can tell by her tone that she's concentrating.

"No, there's definitely footsteps," Lola notes.

There is some more thumping, then finally the door opens, and there is the sound of clacking heels, that slowly comes closer, and closer, then stops somewhere to the left of Laura.

"Well, what do we have here?" says the person and Laura hears two things simultaneously. One, a calm, quietly dominant woman's voice, the kind of woman who seemed to be used to being in charge of things. The second is Carmilla's gasp of surprise.

"What?" she asks, urgently, in her head, but Carmilla ignores her.

"Why are we here?" Danny asks, loudly "Who are you?"

"As the visitors here, I suggest you let me ask the questions. Why are a bunch of teenagers from 2017 traveling back in time to 1830, and being in places they're not supposed to be in?"

"We're asking the same questions here, lady," Kirsch mutters.

"Shhh", the woman shushes him "Insubordinate, and rude. Is there anything worse than teenagers who are insubordinate and rude, and tresspass?"

"Yeah, there is," Carmilla says, for the first time in a while, and Laura can hear defiance in her voice "People who lie, and disappear from their sister's lives and leave her in their psychopath mother's hands. That's way worse."

There is silence.

And then the woman speaks again "Carmilla, my dear sister, so glad to see you're alive!"

 **Danny**

If Danny had a second for every time she'd been punched, kicked, or thrown into a wall, they would probably be back in 2017 by now. But because life doesn't work this way, all she gets is time to think about how exactly she'd landed here, a little dazed, sitting down on the ground, while the rest of the gang looks at her, concerned.

And the worst part of it all? This happened because she was simply too awesome.

Quick recapping, she was quietly trying to free her hands while the lady was exclaiming over Carmilla being alive and planning her attack while Carmilla was screaming at her sister for having abandoned her. The plan, was foolproof. Trap her from behind, pull her arm behind her back to immobilize her, and she was set. And so, Danny attacked.

Except, the next thing she knew, the woman had easily grabbed her arm, and thrown her into the wall with so much force that the plaster had cracked.

"Oh God," she groans out "How are you so strong?"

"Because she's a vampire," Carmilla tells her, and then looks at her, with disbelief, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world, as though this woman was walking around with fangs, a cape, bloodred eyes, and a sign of her fucking forehead that said 'Hey, I'm a vampire!'.

Okay, maybe she is a little bitter.

"A vampire?" Laura asks.

"And judging by your squeaky voice, I'm going to assume you're Laura Hollis, my sister's...paramour. My greetings. I'm Matska Belmonde."

"How do you know her?" Mel asks, with frank curiosity.

"I've kept tabs on my dear sister, of course."

"And yet you couldn't be bothered to come save me when Maman was trying to kill all of us," Carmilla spits out, incredulous.

"You don't think I wanted to? The school was under a lockdown. Protective spells courtesy her witch minions, I'm assuming," Matska retorts "I couldn't get in, even if I tried."

"Sure, okay, Mattie," the tinier girl snarks out, and goes to untie Laura.

Matska looks at her for a moment, lips pursed, expression unreadable. Then she turns her attention to Danny. Slowly stalks over to her.

"Have we learned our lesson, then, sweetheart?" she says, finger trailing down Danny's right cheek. Her skin feels cool, and strangely not unpleasant, considering undead monster and all. Mattie gently touches her cheek, and then puts it to her mouth to...

Oh. Oh. So she's bleeding.

"Stop...feeding...on my blood, you fiend," Danny grits out, and Carmilla's sister just laughs.

"I'll have someone look at that wound on your head," she tells her "So you don't die. I think it'd be more fun to keep you around."

"And I think you should fuck off," Danny replies.

Mattie just smiles, an enigmatic smile that doesn't give anything away.

"Definitely keeping you around," she says, and walks away.


End file.
